6 things you should know before watching HBO’s Game of Thrones premiere

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For those people who are already avid George R.R. Martin fans, this post does not really apply to you, although feel free to add any thoughts in the comment section. This post is for everyone else who is slightly intrigued by HBO’s newest miniseries, but is a little timid about committing 10 hours to a show based on a book they’ve never read.

Game of Thrones, starting Sunday, April 17, is based on Martin’s books series A Song of Fire and Ice, which started out as a trilogy, but now has four volumes (4,000 pages) and counting. So, if you didn’t happen to read the tome, we’ll fill you in on a few important things to know before turning on HBO this Sunday.

The 10-hour series will cover most of the first GoT book. There are three other books in the series, and a fifth is coming this summer. Martin thinks the series will be seven books long, and the book due out this summer, A Dance with Dragons, has been in the works for almost six years. Needless to say, GoT fans have been waiting a while.

One of the main characters, Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark, Lord of Winterfell, is played by Sean Bean, who you might recognize as Boromir from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Though it has a LoTR character in it, and it’s a fantasty, it’s not like the traditional LoTR-style fantasy films you might be thinking of. The show has been compared to The Sopranos, as well as a more grownup LoTR. The story’s characters are mostly normal people, but that’s not to say there aren’t any fantasy elements to it. It’s just that the fantasy parts aren’t the main focus of the story overall, like much it is in LoTR.

The setting takes place in a fictional continent called Westeros which is split up into numerous sub-kingdoms. It’s kind of like 15th century England, complete with castles and knights and all that good stuff. But, it’s still fictional, so it has some unusual characteristics. The north part of the continent is always frozen and winter. It’s populated by dangerous creatures, and there’s a 700-foot-high wall that goes about three-quarters of the way up Westeros to the north to keep out these creatures.

The series takes us through the violent struggles among noble families who are fighting to gain control of the Iron Throne of Westeros. There are no clear cut good guys or bad guys, which is where The Sopranos reference comes in again. There are dozens of characters and numerous subplots to keep up with. Bean told the Guardian that the show is sexy, brutal, horrific, and moving. He said the monsters are the people, which means it has to be good.

Though we know Sunday is often family time, this show is not for the kids. As the trailer below alludes to, there will be nudity, sex, and clearly a lot of violence. The opening episode has the king of Westeros saying “All I wanted to do was crack skulls and f*** girls.” It’s probably not the best thing for the younger crowd.

Need help following the show? There’s an app for that. The Game of Thrones Companion gives iphone/ipad owners a comprehensive guide. It includes information about characters, houses, maps, and more. You can read about characters in a Contacts-like interface, and read about the major houses, their histories, and castles. The user can also pinch-and-zoom across a map of Westeros and the surrounding areas.